Florida Sets Execution Date for Inmate in 1992 Police Officer Killing

Governor Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant on Friday for Ricardo Gonzalez, a 56-year-old death row inmate, setting the stage for a scheduled lethal injection on December 1. The execution will take place at the Florida State Prison and could mark the state's 21st execution this year. Gonzalez is scheduled to die for the 1992 killing of a North Miami Beach police officer during an armed bank robbery.

The fatal incident occurred on January 3, 1992, when North Miami Beach Police Officer Steven Bauer was walking bank tellers toward drive-thru windows at Kislak National Bank. Gonzalez and three codefendants ambushed the group, robbing a cash box from a drive-thru teller. Court records indicate that Gonzalez grabbed the fallen money tray from the ground immediately after shooting the officer.

Detectives located Gonzalez at his home roughly two weeks after the robbery. He provided both recorded and unrecorded confessions to investigators. During his testimony, Gonzalez claimed he aimed low and believed he had only struck the officer in the leg. However, investigators later confirmed that the bullet from Gonzalez's gun pierced Officer Bauer's chest, proving it was the fatal shot. A sentencing order signed by Circuit Court Judge Robert Scola, Jr. in 1998 noted that Gonzalez received $1,500 as his share of the proceeds from the robbery and murder.

Gonzalez was convicted of first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer, armed robbery, aggravated assault, two counts of burglary, and two counts of grand theft. A neuropsychologist testified that Gonzalez acted under extreme mental or emotional disturbance. The expert cited marital struggles, shifting childhood living arrangements, language barriers, impulsive behavior, and brain trauma from boxing as contributing factors.

Florida's Department of Corrections has not yet confirmed whether Gonzalez will exhaust his remaining legal appeals to halt the scheduled lethal injection before next month. His codefendants, Leonardo Franqui and Pablo San Martin, remain on Florida's death row, which houses 235 inmates as of Monday. Officials have not announced specific death warrant dates for the two men.

The state is approaching a record pace for executions. Florida carried out 19 executions last year, which was the previous single-year high since the U.S. Supreme Court lifted its capital punishment ban in 1976. If two other upcoming lethal injections scheduled for Thursday and November 19 proceed as planned, the state will have conducted 21 executions before Gonzalez's date.

Nationally, six states have carried out death sentences this year, including Florida, Texas, Alabama, Tennessee, Oklahoma, and Arizona. A total of 32 prisoners have been put to death across these states so far. Texas trails Florida with seven executions this year.

Gonzalez remains scheduled to be executed on December 1. Prior to his date, two other condemned inmates face execution dates set for Thursday and November 19. The details of the case were gathered from Florida court records, the Florida Department of Corrections, and the Death Penalty Information Center.